The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the two brothers behind Solana stablecoin exchange Saber Labs, Ian and Dylan Macalinao, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The investigation follows CoinDesk’s August report that the Macalinao brothers used a web of 11 pseudonymous identities to build an ecosystem of interlocking financial products that double- and triple-counted crypto deposits by passing tokens between themselves. Their effort boosted a key growth metric for Solana by billions of dollars during the height of crypto’s 2021 bull market, and, according to Ian, juiced the price of SOL.
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